Job only half done for Scarlets

The Scarlets travel to face former treble Heineken Cup champions Toulouse with a seven-point cushion at the top of Pool 5 after their 20-19 Round 3 victory over the French giants with Davies declaring: "Obviously we are very pleased with the three wins - if someone had offered me that back in October I would have said 'thank you very much.'

"But the job really is only half done and I don't think anyone will know their final position in this group until the final weekend - it is going to go down to the wire.

"Because we have two tough away matches still to come, at Toulouse and then Ulster, while both those teams have two home and just one away game to come.

"It is going to be tough but at least it is in our own hands and we know just what we have to do if we are to qualify for the quarter-finals.
"Of course we are happy to have chalked up the milestone of having beaten Toulouse after they had won the previous four meetings against us and, although all great sides go through fluctuations in form, Toulouse are still a formidable team.

"Their record speaks for itself and three Heineken Cup titles says everything about them and the force they have been in Europe over the last 12 years.

"Our coaching staff have seen quite a bit of Toulouse this season and I believe that, while they will be disappointed to have lost at Stradey, they will be buoyed by the way they played and take confidence from what I consider to have possibly been their most cohesive display of the season

"We have got a good rhythm and energy going in the team and I am pleased with the way we are putting it together as an effective unit. We are not there yet and we are really excited about the challenge facing us in Toulouse."

While domestic rivals Stade Français Paris and Biarritz Olympique are riding high in their respective Pools, long-serving Toulouse Head Coach Guy Noves accepts they have a mountain to climb.

"We always try to win when we go away but it didn't work this time," he said. "We played very well, but we lost by the narrowest of margins. Even so, the performance promises much for the future.

"The future is about welcoming the Scarlets back to Toulouse. Unlike other years, we lost our first game away, which makes life a lot more complex for qualification, but we will be doing everything we can to qualify, as we showed in Llanelli. We will keep on playing and working hard.

"Llanelli play good rugby and they showed us they give 100 per cent. You can be sure we will give them all the respect they deserve.
"I know that if we don't qualify everybody will say that after four quarter-finals in a row at home we didn't make it five but if you look at Stade Français Paris' record last year nobody wanted to see them as a dying club.

"It's not an emergency for us, we must keep a cool head and we won't be a club about to die if we don't reach the quarter-finals. As I said, just look at Stade Français. They didn't get through last year and just look at them now."